Internet of Things (IoT) will start to deliver on its promise next year following this year’s explosion of new IoT-related solutions, including consumer wearables, smart home products and industrial IoT solutions, IDC predicts.
IDC lists the following top 10 key IoT predictions that it believes will have the biggest impact in 2015 on the IoT industry in Asia Pacific excluding Japan.
First, partnerships between IoT vendors (including ODM/OEM vendors) and non-tech consumer goods’ brands will emerge rapidly to create a sizable market opportunity for the IT industry.
Second, early adopters of smartwatches will be the only adopters, for now. The combination of the small screen size, immature application developer ecosystem, and limited functionality will prevent this from reaching the wider consumer market in 2015.
Third, wearables enter the enterprise. Employee tracking, integration into corporate wellness programs, and the creation of new business models that leverage basic wearables, especially fitness bands, to enhance the customer experience will see significant adoption in 2015.
Fourth, free services will drive consumer IoT adoption, but companies will insist they “own” the data that is produced by the devices. This data will then be leveraged to deliver personalized marketing and drive sales or sold to third parties, regulation permitting.
Fifth, the glass solution provider will emerge, particularly in industries that employ large workforces that spend considerable time at customer sites for training as well as maintenance, repair and overhaul (MRO) services.
Sixth, industrial firms will “talk big”, but deploy practically. They will focus on deploying solutions that deliver quick impact and ROI — like energy management solutions — and leverage the cost savings generated to fund more dynamic solutions going forward.
Seventh, a new wave of vendors vying to become the “platform of platforms”, where their management platform will become the aggregator of the multiple sub-platforms and solve the ongoing platform and standard dilemma.
Eighth, firms will partner to thrive instead of survive, specifically in Asia Pacific. The new groups will bring together vendors from across the IoT ecosystem as well as end users to target specific industry verticals, solution types and customer types.
Ninth, the combination high demand and limited supply with unsure monetization potential will create a risky investment environment.
And tenth, Asia Pacific becomes the front line for IoT. IDC believes the government, mining, energy and manufacturing industries will see the most significant growth and competition. Many will look to the region’s growing list of capable and innovative OEM/ODM vendors for partnership and joint R&D opportunities.